A woman held on Rikers Island with her baby has missed court appearances and video meetings with her lawyer this year because the Correction Department failed to provide required child care, according to records and interviews.
Daisy Barrera, 28, of Queens gave birth after she was arrested and remanded to Rikers on March 17, 2023, with her husband Arturo Cuevas on attempted murder charges for a vicious armed attack on their neighbors in Woodside over a parking space. She was housed in the Rose M. Singer Center, the complex’s jail for women.
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Since her arrest, roughly 14 court dates have been “adjourned” or postponed with at least four because of the lack of child care, according to records, sources and her lawyer. Under rules adopted by the city Board of Correction, people held in the jails are entitled to be brought to their court appearances and to meet with their lawyer.
Most recently, Barrera was prevented from attending a court appearance Aug. 8 because there was “no child care in the nursery area,” according to an “undelivered defendant” report obtained by the Daily News.
Scott Mitchell Davis, Barrera’s lawyer, said she has also missed a number of meetings with him, known as video conferences.
“I’ve scheduled a number of video conferences and those video conferences were canceled because she wasn’t able to get child care,” he said. “It’s always important to have a dialogue and when you can’t speak to your client it definitely impacts representation.”
DOC spokeswoman Annais Morales said Barrera is currently the lone mother with a baby housed in the Singer Center nursery. Two other women previously had babies there earlier in 2024, but not more than one at the same time, she said.
Morales did not directly address why Barrera has missed the court appearances and lawyer meetings, but said in a statement that other detainees are recruited to provide child care.
“Because of our transient population, the number of approved caregivers may fluctuate,” Morales said. “DOC is also exploring other options.”
A spokesperson for the Queens District Attorney’s office who declined to be identified insisted the Aug. 8 postponement was “unrelated to the defendant’s appearance.”
A Queens grand jury indicted Barrera Cuevas on April 3, 2023 on attempted murder charges for the attack on their neighbors with a knife and a baseball bat in Woodside one month earlier, the Queens DA’s office said. The alleged motive was a fight over a parking spot.
After Cuevas stabbed the neighbor, Wilson Chabia-Lliguicota, prosecutors said Barrera allegedly hit him with the baseball bat in the head. Much of the assault was caught on video.
Barrera was also accused of hitting the victim’s girlfriend, Delia Chimbay, with the baseball bat, prosecutors said. Lliguicota suffered severe brain trauma and a portion of his skull had to be removed.
Barrera and Cuevas are slated to return to court Sept. 4.